In the modern world of business, you need to make sure that you are keeping up with your clients at all times. Whether you have a direct relationship with them or a more distant one, you need to make sure that you are able to keep in touch with them when necessary. Here are some of the things you should do to ensure that you are going to be able to keep up with your company’s clients.
Establish a Response Period
One of the first things you should do, even before you begin to build conversations with your clients, is establish an acceptable response period. This is how long you are going to allow yourself to leave messages before you answer them. This should also be a maximum length of time, not a minimum.
If you want to incorporate a quick response time as part of your business model then you need to first set one and then commit to it. Many businesses try to get back to their customers with 2 working days as a maximum, and this might be a good target for you to set. Something too short and you run the risk of not meeting deadlines. Something too long and your customers can become frustrated when waiting for a response.
Get a Work Phone
If you have a lot of clients to keep up with, one of the best options to help you keep things clear can often be to get a work phone. This will help you create a clear distinction between your personal life and your working one – something that will be key if you are self-employed. You will be able to get all business-related matters off your personal phone and can save it for friends and family.
It is important that you choose a work phone that you know you are going to be able to work correctly. You will most likely have to jump in and immediately start using it, so you don’t want there to be a period where you get things wrong. Knowing how to restore deleted iMessages and back up important data will be critical for this phone, as you do not want to lose anything pertaining to clients. This phone should be organised and easy to use, no matter how many clients you need to keep track of through it.
Create Content
There are so many ways that you can keep in touch with your client base, and one of the best ways to do so can be through content creation. This gives your customers some interesting things to explore, and it means that you get to showcase some of the creativity of the business.
Nowadays, there are so many ways to create interesting content that can attract the attention of your customers and let them know what is happening in your business. If you are a very visually driven business, creating videos to post on Instagram, YouTube, or even TikTok might be a good path to follow. On top of this, you can never really go wrong with an email newsletter – even the biggest household brands use these to let their customers know about new deals. There is always some interesting way to reach your clients, so experiment and see what might work best for you!
Give Customers Multiple Ways to Reach You
You should be trying to give your customers many different ways to get in touch with you. Nowadays, there are so many avenues that they could choose to use, and you need to make sure that you have a range for them to try.
The classics are by phone or by email, and every business should support at least one of these. Social media is incredibly popular too, and many customers like the option of being able to get in touch with their favourite brands either through DMs or on feeds. Finally, you should consider adding a live chat function to your website. There are plenty that are powered by AIs that should be able to give generic responses and solve simple requests that customers might have. If the AI can’t handle it, the issue can be passed on to you or a customer service representative. Give the people plenty of options and you can be certain that they will make use of them.
Don’t Always Wait for Them to Come to You
While you should aim to make your brand as approachable and as friendly as possible, you should also make sure that you are not sitting back and waiting for your customers to come to you. More often than not, it can be a good idea to follow up on clients where you can.
If you work with them one-on-one, a check-in every now and then to see how they are getting on can be a great idea to see how they are doing. You might also find that you are able to offer certain promotions and deals if you are the one to reach out first. Even if there is a bit more distance between you and your customers, you can still be the one to first reach out and follow up on a point raised by them.
Keep It Authentic
No matter what, you need to make sure that any communications between you and your customers are kept as authentic as possible. Develop a brand voice and make sure that you and anyone else in your company who might interact with customers use it. You need to keep things as cohesive and uniform as possible, and this can be a great way to do so.
Work out some of the best channels that you can use to appeal to your customers. Communication between a brand and its clients is a fantastic way to ensure that they are happy with what you are offering. How are you keeping in touch with your clients at the moment? There may be some clear improvements you could make for the better.
